This iconic Parisian bookstore doubles as the "Tumbleweed Hotel" for traveling writers.

This strange bovine gargoyle is said to have been put in as a passive aggressive form of revenge.

This bronze boar's snout has been rubbed to a golden sheen by visitors seeking good fortune.

This private skyway is filled with art and was expanded explicitly so that Hitler could appreciate a river.

A Manhattan courthouse hides a small but scathing memorial to Holocaust injustice.

An uber-secure, windowless tower of doom in the center of Manhattan is an NSA spyscraper.

Long the exclusive domain of birds and vagabonds, this little-known Central Park peninsula is open to the public once more.

A 19th-century politician who died after walking home in a blizzard is honored with this Manhattan statue.

The 28-foot granite map plots the locations of 40 theaters in New York City.

America's oldest Eastern European synagogue provided the immigrants of crowded Lower East Side tenements a space of sanctuary.

An annual extravaganza of Broadway theater memorabilia.

This nearly invisible wire transforms much of the city into one big, symbolic home on the holy day.

The fanciest public restroom in New York City boasts fresh flowers, art, and a classical music soundtrack.

A dilapidated dock tells the story of Titanic's missed arrival.

Read a book next to a Midtown waterfall.

The last living thing to come out of the rubble after 9/11 is now a symbol of hope and resilience.

Pulled from the rubble of one of the worst modern tragedies, a steel crossbeam became a symbol of hope for New Yorkers.

A mysterious chasm in the heart of the ancient Roman Forum, the Lacus Curtius was once believed to be a gateway to hell.

The spot where the fascist dictator made some of his most famous speeches including declaring war on Britain and France.

One of Catholicism's four major basilicas has a series of papal portraits that are said to predict the end of the world.

Brass cobblestones mark the places where individual Holocaust victims were taken from their homes.

This Roman arch marks the location of an ancient gate at one of the Seven Hills of Rome.

Museum dedicated to literary greats of the Romantic Period is also the home in which Keats met his untimely end.

A treasure trove of Renaissance-era funerary art in a Roman church built on top of Nero's grave.